Born and bred in New England, I lived in New York City for far too long. Ten years ago, I moved to the Bay Area, giving in to the inevitable gravitational pull of the fog. (I hate heat and humidity, and am not really sure what took me so long.) My favorite season is fall, and the best thing about San Francisco is that it feels like fall almost all year long.

What is your Westphobia?
Skiing in powder: A friend of mine says, “You just have to use the force,” but I don’t have access to that particular force.

What’s your Sunset confession?
I love to drive. I’ll drive anywhere, anytime. I even love my commute. I’m waiting for someone to give me a Tesla for Christmas, though, so I can stop feeling guilty about it.

Red or white? Lake house in the woods or oceanfront beach
cabin? Camping or B&B?
Red. Beach cabin, so I can watch the waves, and maybe learn to surf. (Also, lakes plus woods=mosquitos, or at least they did when I was a kid back east.) Camping or B&B? Two different kinds of hell: no bathrooms in one and the possibility of overfriendly host and/or guests in the other. But if you merge camping and B&Bs, you get the High Sierra Camps in Yosemite, which I absolutely love. I can’t explain this.

Dream getaway in the West?
Three-way tie between the Hotel Del in Coronado, the Briar Patch Inn in Sedona, and the Andiron on the Mendocino coast. Oh, and the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos. And the Murray Hotel in Livingston, MT, and the Lightning Field in New Mexico. So make that a six-way tie.

That’s the message the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is trying to spread among us chicken owners. (Yes, we still have one hen here at Sunset, who will be going to a good home this coming winter, when we move to our new home in Oakland.)

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About Westphoria

Westphoria explores the innovations and lifestyle trends of the 13 Western states, covering food, drink, design, arts and culture, and the dreamers who live here. To contact the editor, westphoria@sunset.com